Slated to make his first tournament appearance (and second overall in the promotion) on June 25th in Hollywood, Florida, Schindler will draw on his lifelong experience as a wrestler and military veteran as he looks to win the opportunity to take on current Bellator featherweight champion and Olympic hopeful Joe Warren.
In this following in-depth interview, we seek to give MMA fans across the nation an opportunity to get some insight on what’s made Adam Schindler the fighter he is today and what’s driven him to excel at the national level against the top fighters in the world starting at Bellator 46 this June.
Adam, start at the very beginning by telling us about life back in West Virginia. What was life like for you growing up?
Growing up in West Virginia, Actually I was just a regular kid man. We weren’t really poor or anything but my parents didn’t have much money or anything like that so what I did was just stay involved in sports all the time. I played sports year round. I wrestled in the winter, played baseball in the spring and summer, and started football in August so I competed year round.
Wrestling was the first sport I did along with tee ball. My dad worked at plants and stuff like that but he wrestled himself growing up so he got me on the mats pretty early. I was six when I started wrestling. My brother, who’s four years behind me in school, he started when he was four. The youth leagues – people have their kids start that young all the time back there on the east coast.
There were a lot of real good memories. I got to travel a lot from wrestling – like nationals in Tulsa, St. Louis, and I was always up in Pennsylvania traveling around and wrestling the best kids in the northeast and that’s where the best wrestling is, I believe anyways.
I grew up in a small town and I’ve had friends who have never really experienced anything else other than small town West Virginia. Wrestling got me out of my little town. It got me more cultured, I guess. I was able to see all around the country and I was able to see that even though I am from a small town in West Virginia, that I’m still as good as these guys from Las Vegas, Los Angeles, or Dallas, or Ohio and Pennsylvania… You know what I mean? I learned that just because people are from bigger places with more opportunity… It doesn’t mean that I’m not as good as they are.
Why do you think you excelled on the mats?
My dad, he was pretty hard on me and he was my coach. I was literally scared to lose. Like, I did not want to lose at all. My dad was the type of guy… other parents would get mad at him and threaten to call the cops and stuff. It embarrassed me sometimes because I would get yelled at. He’d be in my face and it was like I getting spit on because he was yelling so much. I was never physically abused but I was definitely picked up off the ground sometimes. If I wasn’t listening, then I was going to get in big trouble and if I lost… Basically, if I lost then that meant I wasn’t listening. So yeah, I was scared to lose and that really drove me.
Do you think that discipline from your dad carries through with your MMA career?
Yes, 100%. I’ve thought about that a lot. The relationship I had with my dad… Now it’s a lot different that whenever I was a kid. We were real close when I was a kid.I don’t talk to him much anymore but I always think about what he thought me and what he did for me as a kid. What he wanted to instill in me was to be tough, first and foremost… To always push through no matter what and never give up. That will to win and his tough love is kind of what I carry with me now from those days.
How far did you take wrestling? What did you do afterwards?
My senior year of high school, I was so burned out on wrestling that I said there was no freekin’ way I was going to wrestle in college. Right after high school I could have went to WVU or Marshall. I really wanted to go to Marshall, which didn’t even have a wrestling program. If I wanted to, I could probably have walked on at WVU but I chose to go to Marshall instead just to go to school and hang out with my friends. Anyways, I got into some trouble and those plans didn’t pan out. My parents didn’t trust me to go to university so I my mom gave me two choices – to go to community college for a semester and live at home or go to the military. I chose the military.
Is that how you ended up in Texas?
Yes, I was stationed in Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio for five years. I was in the air force for about six years, total. The military taught me discipline because even though I was a good athlete growing up, I was one of those kids who was naturally talented but didn’t know how to work hard. I was tough and I had the will to win but I really needed to be pushed to get into the gym, work hard, and stuff like that.
For some reason, when I joined the military, it forced me to be accountable and be more disciplined in every aspect of life. Basically, the main thing the military did for me was that it grew me up. Honestly, I was a kid when I went in. I was a brat. But the military forced me to have to be a man and I grew up a lot because of it.
How about fighting? How’d you end up doing this?
Did you take to MMA right away or did it take some time to get into it?
You know, my personality is all or nothing. I don’t ever do anything half-assed. I already had a gym membership prior to that so I’d been lifting weights and was already in shape So whenever I went in, I tried it out and just I loved it. From there, I cancelled my membership at Gold’s and signed up with Texas Powerhouse. I was pretty much in the gym every single day from there on out.
Going through training and your early career, how do you think you’ve evolved as a fighter since you started in 2008?
I’ve been trying to pick something up every single day. When I first started, I was just outwrestling everybody. I had some basics and stuff like that but the discipline level has increased. Whenever I was 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, not really making a whole of money and nobody really knew who I was, it was cool… I always envisioned myself getting to this level but when I lost for the first time (to Derek Campos), that’s when I realized I really wasn’t ready to fight.
I don’t want to down any other gym or anything like that but basically I felt like I was training myself a lot. I didn’t know how to box so when I fought Derek Campos, I was just trying to swing and take his head off until I could take him down. At the time, I had just quit my job (government contracting, post-military) where I didn’t have to wake up first thing in the morning or anything so I was in the habit of going out and partying a lot. I just wasn’t in the kind of shape to fight a guy liked Derek Campos.
With that in mind, what type of sacrifices did you make and what did you realize you had to do in order to become a top-level fighter?
Winning means you have to put that other stuff on the back burner.
And making a career out of fighting – What was the turning point for you where you decided to make a go at this thing for real?
I was 5-1 going into 2010 and my roommate, Bobby, who lives and trains in Austin now, was like, “Hey man, do you want to go to Thailand?” I said hell yeah because I knew I needed to work on my standup anyways.
Whenever we went over there I got to see guys who, 365-days year round, were working every single day. Guys like Roger Huerta, Mike Swick, Dave Menne – they were over there all in the same camp. Every morning they’d get up and work their butts off and do it again every evening. Seeing that and being over really changed my outlook on thing. I started caring less about just worrying about going out, having fun, and partying because I really wanted to do this.
From there, whenever I got back to San Antonio and fought Brian (Melancon), that’s when I realized I was training a lot by myself and maybe needed more support to get better. It was just me and Chris Lopez at the time. He can vouch for that. In the mornings, at the gym, it would be just me and him and I thought, “Man, I need to get somewhere where I have training partners in the morning, some more structure, and things like that.”
After Bellator 20, I kind of had a falling out with the gym I was at. I talked to Ragan McDaniel to let him know there was really nowhere else for me to train and he told me to come to Houston. Ragan’s done more for me than anybody else outside of my mother so I came straight here. Funny thing is that it was the day I got over here that he told me that I was on the Strikeforce card. He knew before but didn’t tell me until I got here to stay with him.
It sounds like you and Ragan have a close athlete-manager relationship. How did you come to be a part of his B3 Sports brand?
Ragan is the most generous person that I’ve met. He’s just been the kind of guy that would take the shirt off his back for you. He’s almost like a big brother / dad to me. I’ve known him since I was 2-0 as a pro. I met him whenever I was over at Powerhouse and the head instructor said one day that were was a manager that was there to talk to us about setting up fights and stuff. It was a couple of years ago when he was just starting B3. He came in and told us what he wanted to do for us. I got so excited and told him I wanted to fight right away so he set up a title fight for me in New Orleans for two or three weeks later and we’ve kept the ball rolling since then.
As far as training, I see you’ve been training with a few new guys at IV Ounce Fight Club and Team Tooke recently. What can you tell us about how you’ve been preparing for what you have coming up this summer.
I’ve got Daniel Pineda as my main training partner. Me and him are like a match made in heaven as far as training partners go. We’re the same size, the same strength, we’re both quick and have good wrestling… He pushes me every day so it’s great to have a top-level guy like him around as my main training partner.
Also, Bob Perez is working with me every day and I’ve never had anyone work standup with me like he does. He’s kind of taken my standup to another level. It’s always been there but he’s given me much more confidence in it. Now I can go into a fight and not treat it like I have to take anyone down. Every day, I’m training with good strikers all the time between Daniel, Jesus, and those guys at 4OZ and Andrew Craig, Jace Pitre, and those guys at Team Tooke. The more I get in there, the more comfortable I’m feeling.
As far as submissions go, I’ve been training that with Team Tooke and Travis is phenomenal on the ground. I’ve always felt I can handle myself with just about anyone but I get twisted up by him. He gets me so I think being pushed by somebody of his caliber really helps.
It was recently announced that you’ll be in Bellator’s “Summer Series” featherweight tournament. How did that come about and when is your first fight for the promotion?
We’ve been talking to Bellator ever since I fought for them last year (Bellator 20). Originally, we were talking to them about the 155 tournament but they didn’t have room at 155. Ultimately, It was good for me, I think, because I’m kind of a natural 145’er. I never wanted to admit it but I’m not a huge 155’er. I never really cut a whole lot of weight for 155, only like 6-7 pounds. So yeah, we’ve been talking to them for a long time and then we actually got hooked up with Ron Foster. He asked me about putting my name in for 145 and eventually, low and behold, he came through with a contract for the tournament.
That first fight will be at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida on June 25th this summer.
Speaking of the tournament, there are some big names in this thing along with you, with Marlon Sandro, Pat Curran, and Ronnie Mann, just to name a few. How does it feel for you to finally get a chance to compete at this level?
This is exactly what I’ve been working on the whole time. I finally feel validated and I feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be. It doesn’t intimidate me because I feel like these guys are who I should be fighting anyway.
Pat Curran was me last year. He was in my position where he was finally getting the opportunity. That just goes to show that you can come into this tournament with nobody knowing you and a year later, you’re a household name.
What do you think of the current champion, Joe Warren? Did you get a chance to catch his last fight against Marcos Galvão?
Speaking of which, soup-to-nuts, are you ready to win the Summer Series tournament and be the guy standing across from Joe Warren the next time he defends the 145 belt?
I am most definitely ready to win the tournament so I can stand across from Joe Warren and be the guy to beat him.
Cool man, well tell our fans – What can we expect from Adam Schindler in the near future?
Every time I get in that cage, you should expect something exciting. I’m never going to sit around and I’m always going to be the fighter to bring the fight. I like being pushed and I’ll always have that will to win. Whether its standing up or on the ground, I’ll be ready to fight and win – I’m ready to bring that Bellator title home.
Any last words Adam?
I want to think B3 Sports, ML Management, Team Tooke and IV Ounce Fight Club. Also, I just got a new sponsor called Redemption Clothing Line. I want to thank them a lot for everything they’re doing for me. I’m going to make everybody proud!